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Tuesday, 17 September 2013

Recently
I’ve had bit of time to play around with and I decided to reattempt reading
David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest (1996), an enormous tome I had long
ago abandoned after only a third had been read. I’m making good headway and
most importantly I’m enjoying the experience. So stay tuned for a review –
eventually.

The
nature of Infinite Jest has led me to do a bit of reading about trends in
literature and I stumbled across a brilliant essay written by Ted Gioia about
the rise of the fragmented novel. It is well worth reading and helps put into
perspective many significant novels of the last ten years or so, such as
Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad (2010) and Roberto Bolano’s 2666 (2004).

Ted Gioia is an author, musician and cultural theorist. His biography
is well worth checking out, as is the list of essays at the bottom of the
linked page. Gioia has written much-lauded books about Jazz, but the one I’m
most interested in is The Birth (and the Death) of Cool (2009), which is:

…a work
of cultural criticism and a historical survey of hipness—his concept of post-cool, outlined in this work, was highlighted
as one of the "ideas of the year" by Adbusters

Sounds pretty cool to me! One day when I finally finish Infinite
Jest
I’ll get around to reading it. Meanwhile Gioia has also written an essay on Infinite
Jest –
something to be going on with then.

Sunday, 8 September 2013

As
much as I love music I rarely read books on the subject, but when a good friend
of mine lent me this book I knew that I’d have to read it. Both The Flaming
Lips and the Zaireeka album are fascinating and compelling subjects. The
Flaming Lips are perhaps the most rewarding underground band to have emerged in
America in the last thirty years. Their career arc has been one of unbridled
adventurousness, always following their muse without concern for commercial
gain, whilst at the same time maintaining a high level of quality control.

Zaireeka
was released in 1997 as a four CD set designed to be listened to simultaneously
on four separate CD players. As an album Zaireeka also stands as one of the
best The Flaming Lips have produced in their long and eccentric career.
Richardson notes in the introduction that when he mentioned to friends that he
was going to write about Zaireeka they would joke about him having to write
four separate books meant to be read simultaneously. A good joke yes, but this
inspired Richardson to structure the book in four separate parts that contain
eight ‘tracks’ each, a format that serves the subject well.

If
you are a fan of The Flaming Lips then Zaireeka is an essential read. Richardson
examines Zaireeka as an idea, where it came from and how it then became a fully
realized album. He also includes a condensed history of The Flaming Lips that
answers the question of how an amateurish bunch of small town freaks inspired
by both punk and the likes of Pink Floyd came to transform themselves into an
innovative and accomplished band. Both the story of the band and the Zaireeka
album are truly inspirational and Richardson does a fine job of articulating
just how it all happened.

If
you happen to not be a fan of the band then why would you want to read about a
bunch of freaks that made an album that is inherently difficult to actually sit
down and listen to?Well believe
it or not there is quite a bit of cultural significance attached to Zaireeka.
The requirement of actually having to organize four stereos (that’s at least
eight speakers!) means that there needs to be at least two or more people
present, something that results in gatherings known as Zaireeka listening
parties. The act of listening in groups, Richardson muses, is not all that
common and when it does happen is fraught with psychological issues; a theory
that is perhaps questionable, but also fascinating to consider.

In
an age in which both convenience and speed are paramount Richardson argues that
Zaireeka represents the music world’s equivalent to the concept of slow food
and therefore by extension the slow living movement. I’ve taken part in two
Zaireeka listening parties, one amazingly using the vinyl version, in which
organisation, patience and sociability were all integral to the overall experience. Zaireeka, fortunately, is well worth the effort.

Zaireeka is number sixty-eight
in the thirty-three and a third series of pocket books that focus on one
important album. There are some significant albums on the list, including
Bowie’s Low, The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds and Love’s Forever Changes, but no other album
engages with the listener in Zaireeka’s unique way. Other albums are more
culturally significant, but Zaireeka alone stands in opposition to the effects
of the rapid cultural changes driven by technology in recent decades. I
recommend to anyone who is interested in listening to the album that they read
this book first, after all, you’ll only need one copy and it will make your
Zaireeka experience a richer one.

Synopsis

This blog is a project designed to help improve my writing skills and to provide a record of what I have read over the years. Hopefully it will also be a resource for those curious about literature. I mostly read literary fiction, cult books, non fiction and science fiction. I also run book clubs at Subiaco Public Library, where I’ve worked happily amongst the books for the last 10 years; so some of the books I review have been selected by my book club members, which helps introduce me to authors I might normally ignore. I have also completed a B.A. in literature at U.W.A. Also you’ll find no links to online bookstores on this blog. I love bookstores and I encourage everyone to support them.